


Weft and Warp

by Chaerring



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Character Death Fix, F/M, Gen, Gray Asexual Character, Knitting, M/M, Queer Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2018-01-02 18:35:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaerring/pseuds/Chaerring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raleigh knits. He’s no virtuoso and apart from altering the shapes of his works he’s not very creative or into complicated patterns. He’s steady at it and does neat work, but it took him a long time to get there. The hard truth is, that for the moment, he's not good for much else since he was out of the loop for five years previous to Pitfall, but being near useless doesn't give him an excuse to fall into the sweater curse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Scarf, Socks

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [all wound up in you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1057876) by [verity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/verity/pseuds/verity). 



> A reference for anyone who doesn't know what curse this story is referring to. (I didn't a few days ago before reading the work by Verity that this was inspired by.) [The Sweater Curse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweater_curse)
> 
> My apologies for any mistakes and thank you for reading.

Raleigh knits. He’s no virtuoso and apart from altering the shapes of his works he’s not very creative or into complicated patterns. He’s steady at it and does neat work, but it took him a long time to get there. It began as rehabilitation for the nerves in his left arm. An exercise in fine motor control and making sure his limb and hand connected up with his brain the correct way still after Knifehead. When he left the Icebox to chase the Wall the product of his labors was a way to stay warm and con some extra money off people that didn’t know how truly cold Alaska could be. 

Surviving the close of the breach with his other arm feeling fried beneath the surprisingly intact circuitry suit sends him back to the habit. The doctor’s say he’ll be okay with some rest and relaxation that he rightly deserves and Raleigh trusts them to an extent. However, he also sees Hercules, the oldest living pilot, wincing and rubbing at his limbs and he’s never had quite the same trauma left on his body as Raleigh has. Not all in two drop at least. If there’s the chance keeping up with his knitting will keep Raleigh limber as he ages, then he’ll spend his pension on yarn gladly.

He sits at Chuck Hansen’s coma bed and knits a long blue scarf that matches Mako’s hair in the hopes they’ll be allowed to travel to Russia for the memorial to Cherno Alpha, Sasha and Aleksis. They haven’t talked about it yet, what they’ve learned about each other in the drift. Mako’s busy seeing to Marshall Pentecost’s plans for after the world was saved and Raleigh has gone back to avoiding the world with a side of playing watchdog with Max by Chuck’s bed. It wasn’t like Raleigh had intended to become the Australian pilot’s second bodyguard, but with Hercules bearing the Marshall title unable to take the time to sit by his son and the hard truth that Raleigh had been sorely out of the loop for five years previous to this last-ditch gambit, well he’s fairly useless elsewhere. 

When he finally corners Mako with the scarf one sleepless night in their spot overlooking Gipsy Danger’s bay, she looks tired, but content and his insides twist up in the memories of the drift and how they love each other. The love between them is not simply forged and fired in battle, but woven together too with the understanding of each other’s fears and dreams. 

“How is he?” 

It’s so strange for Raleigh to hear her voice out loud when generally he’s interacting with a silent conversation between her and Yancy in the corners of his mind as he sits in the everlasting silence of the medical ward. 

“No change. His body’s patching itself up like the doctors expect, but he hasn’t so much as twitched.” 

Raleigh’s voice comes out rough and Mako’s steady eyes are taking him in. She doesn’t have to say aloud he needs to interact with people more. He can feel the impression already. 

“Is that for me?” She says, instead, while knowing damn well it is. 

He steps forward and loops the scarf loosely around her neck rather than answer out loud. The coils of his brain are all wrapped up in admiration, loyalty, and the way he would die or kill for her without questions asked. Yancy’s laughing at him, he can feel it. 

“You should make something for Chuck.” 

Raleigh grimaces. Of course she had to bring that up. If Mako was tied up in the coils of his brain, then Chuck had wormed himself into the coils of his intestines taking up residence like a parasite, albeit one he had a weird fondness for. In part, it was due to the way Mako’s own friendship, competitive and strained as it had eventually become had shed more light on the redeeming characteristics Raleigh had seen himself in Chuck Hansen. There was no fooling her when she’d seen his speculation that maybe he would be able to sleep for more than three hours a night if he had the both of them to guard him. 

“Yeah, maybe.”

Chuck gets a pair of socks made from extra yarn mismatched in Danger and Eureka’s colors. Raleigh kind of does it hoping to incite a reaction from the sleeping man. Mismatched socks seemed like the kind of thing that would be offensive to Chuck Hansen’s very being. Every couple of days Raleigh slides them off Chuck’s feet, careful not to disturb any of his bandages and throws them in with a load of his laundry before taking them back to the medical ward and returning them to their proper place. The fourth time he’s doing this Chuck’s been asleep for two weeks and Raleigh has been getting to know Max far too well when Herc catches him bent over his sons feet, hands gingerly pushing the soft yarn up his ankles. 

Raleigh feels like he’d been caught coloring in Yancy’s comic books or maybe the same way Mako felt catching him shirtless as he’d seen in the drift. Herc’s face is frozen, caught in a weird half expression of surprise and something Raleigh’s never seen on his face before. The older man’s face crumples and Raleigh’s about to run for his life when the deep full stomached chuckle pours out of Herc. It’s the first time he’s seen the new Marshall laugh since-well, Raleigh’s not sure he’d ever heard him laugh since he’d come to the Shatterdome. 

With the laughter at least, Raleigh no longer feels like he’s molesting Chuck’s ankles in front of his father that could very well kill him, and safely finishes adjusting the socks and covering Chuck back up with the blankets. Herc, by that point is shaking his head.

“I can’t wait for him to wake up and give you hell.”

“That’s the idea, sir.”

The doctors repeat the all clear that Raleigh’s arms are in as much of a working order as they’re ever going to be again as if that’s going to get him to leave the medical ward and let them sneak extra brain scans on Chuck, but Raleigh doesn’t leave and he doesn’t stop knitting. His third project is a cable blue sweater modeled off the tan store-bought one of Yancy’s that Raleigh’s still got. Based on careful consideration he leaves it on the Marshall’s desk with a last stroke of the butter soft yarn. Herc is not a damn thing like Yancy at all, but both the Beckett boys had looked up to the older ranger after Manila. It was about time he acknowledged that without embarrassing any of them.

A day or two later, Raleigh’s just determining that he’s shaping another sweater in hunter green instead of a blanket from the best wool he’s felt in his life, courtesy of Newt via some black market smuggler, as a thank-you of sort for saving the world. It’s, of course, when the first reporters are being allowed into the Shatterdome for official interviews and information about the future of the PPDC that Chuck Hansen decides to wake up and ruin all his father’s current plans.


	2. Hunter Green Yarn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who's reading and leaving me comments and kudos. 
> 
> Once again, all mistakes are mine and I apologize for them.

Chuck’s awakening changes almost as many things about Raleigh’s life around the Shatterdome as closing the Breach had. Granted, these changes are more because of Mako’s crafty delegation and redistribution of duties than anything actually having to do with Chuck. She does it so Herc can spend even a portion of his time at Chuck’s bedside without the PPDC turning to hell in a handbasket. Raleigh has made a strategic retreat out of Chuck’s curtained off area and the way of endless procession of medical professionals. He makes camp and creates a new usual spot for himself where he can see Chuck’s face when the curtains are moved, but no one trips over him. If the most convenient spot is a corner from which few people can catch sight of him in return, well, that’s just a bonus, and it gives him the chance to discreetly stop anyone from bothering Herc or trying to sneak in on Chuck. 

Mako finds him working away at the green yarn and looks at it dubiously with her chin tucked into the scarf he and his needles made even though it’s not winter. She’s trying to get a reaction from him by silently casting aspersions on his knitting to open the door easily for whatever conversation they have to have. She has no problems delivering bad news or telling him how reckless he is honestly, but he knows she prefers the receiver of the news to invite it some way first.

Raleigh gets a half present impression of a golden retriever puppy looking up at it’s owner and knows Yancy’s laughing at his devotion to Mako without caring that they’d had a much different drift relationship. It’s like she provided a some kind of sealant between his brain and what was left of Yancy’s while they drifted together and he doesn’t think he could ever refuse her anything because of that. He would owe her even if he didn’t love her, so he gives her the reactive invitation she wants.

“Hey, don’t make that face. Your scarf once looked like this.”

Her lips curl in the smile that looks shy, but is actually sly, the first one she ever gave him outside the helicopter, and the worry tightening his muscles eases up. Whatever she’s come to see him about isn’t nearly as bad as he was fearing at first. 

“What will it be when you’re done?”

“A sweater.”

“For yourself?” 

Raleigh falters a second. He hadn’t thought about who to give this one to yet. Herc probably didn’t need more than one, and all of his own were still sturdy enough. Tendo crossed his mind for a moment, but Yancy’s best friend didn’t really wear sweaters. Maybe sweater vests, but that took buttons and a couple extra skills Raleigh didn’t think he had yet. So, who would the deep green soft sweater go to?

“I don’t know.” He finally admitted. “I hadn’t planned on keeping it, though.”

Mako nods. “You’ll find someone, but for now...We have a bigger problem than who will receive your quality knit goods.”

He snorts and looks away for a moment because he knows his ears are burning at the compliment, but folds his hands and the rectangle beginnings of the sweater into his lap so she knew he was listening with his full attention. 

“What’s going on?”

“As you know, Marshall Hansen has been under pressure from many sectors. Private companies, the UN, the media....”

Raleigh nodded. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t already heard, from Herc himself, as well as around the cafeteria and hallways. Newt especially seemed to be chafing under the restrictions not to speak to the world about the breakthroughs K-Science had made in regards to the kaiju, but he hadn’t disobeyed the Marshall yet.

“With Chuck waking up, I have volunteered to take the media off his hands. Hopefully, in a way that will distract the companies and UN long enough for Herc and Chuck to spend some time together. I will need your help.”

“What can I do?”

Mako’s smile was wider that time real and a little relieved as though she’d worried he might run and hide at the mention of the media. She had reason to be afraid, considering the way he’d reacted to the first interview request about Yancy’s death. It hadn’t been the reason for his disappearance, but it had been a helpful catalyst in his addled brains at the time. 

“K-Science, Mr. Choi, you, and I are going to do a series of print and televised interviews to distract the world from the Hansens.”

It’s a great idea. The world has been clamoring to see them since Pitfall and with two weeks of almost complete news silence after closing the Breach the resulting frenzy could last long enough to give Herc the time he needed if they played it right. Not to mention giving Chuck the time he needed to resume his asshole persona and get ready for the praise and admiration none of them wanted from the people that had fought so hard to cut their program.

He looks down wistfully at the piece of the sweater in his hands and sighs. Five years ago this would have been the point where he slipped out at night and hitched his way to the nearest paying job. But Chuck’s still on enough drugs to keep him asleep two-thirds of the day and Raleigh’s pretty sure he tried to call him Ray when he woke up. It sucks, but the only good thing he’s been good for since Pitfall is waiting for Chuck, so he’ll keep doing that, just perhaps at better effectiveness on what seemed to be their new frontlines, fighting invasive questions and flashbulbs. 

“You can take your knitting with you. There will undoubtedly be a lot of waiting, and the cameras will like it.” 

Mako cuts through his thoughts with her usual efficiency. Raleigh half laughs and hopes she’ll let him crawl into her bed and try for a bit more sleep than usual that night. He stands up and she draws him in by the black PPDC sweater he’s wearing to press her lips to his jaw. It’s a great concession for her, physical affection isn’t her favorite thing to hand out, even to him.

“Lead on, Ranger Mori. What publication are we sacrificing ourselves to first?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo, I might have made a mistake when I said this was going to be about three chapters. Now we're shooting for more like five.

**Author's Note:**

> So, it's been a long time since I've updated or posted anything new. I apologize for my incomplete stories and I hope to work on some of them over this holiday season, but I began working in addition to going to school, so Pacific Rim may be the only thing you see out of me for a while. 
> 
> I've got a plan for this fic, ~~(it should be fairly short only one or two more chapters)~~ , and another much longer one involving the names-on-wrist soul mate trope. I'm using Pacific Rim as the balm for the holiday retail season. If you'd like, you can hit me up on tumblr at [Putonhisuniverse](putonhisuniverse.tumblr.com).


End file.
